[Editor's Note: Ian Griggs, Editor of THE DEALEY PLAZA
ECHO, the journal of the British Research Group devoted
to the study of the death of JFK, provides an overview of
world opinion on the events of 22nd/24th November 1963,
based upon government documents released in 1994/95.]

Introduction

In the United Kingdom, the Public Record Office (PRO) is the equivalent
of the United States National Archives. It is the national repository
for all UK governmental and other official records which are to be permanently
preserved. Such documents are available for public examination at the
PRO and range from the Domesday Book (1086) to the Magna Carta (1215),
the will of William Shakespeare (1616) and even the Deed Poll document
legalizing a certain musicianís official change of name from
Reginald Kenneth Dwight to Elton Hercules John (1970).

The PRO was established by Act of Parliament in 1838 and its records
currently occupy four different locations in London. Its main building,
and by far the largest, is situated at Kew, on the western outskirts
of London. It is here that the British Foreign Office records, which
include the Kennedy-related files referred to herein, are stored. Records
held are normally available for study by members of the public after
30 years.

This paper describes the eight Kennedy Assassination-related files
which I located and examined at the PRO in the course of my visits on
12th September 1995 and on 30th November 2001. As far as I am aware,
there are no further British Government files on the subject, either
open or closed. As noted later, however, a section of one of these files
does, for some undisclosed reason, remain closed to public scrutiny.

The Kennedy Assassination Files

On my first visit to the PRO (September 1995), I studied seven files.
All had been closed and sealed until 1st January 1994 under the general
30-years rule. Another remained closed for an extended period and was
to be the subject of my second visit in November 2001. Prior to my visit,
I contacted the PRO by telephone and was very fortunate to make contact
with of Ms. Abi Husainy of the PRO Reader Services Department. This
lady was not only very helpful in advising me the location of the relevant
files but she also takes an interest in the Assassination and has more
than passing knowledge of its significance and complexities.

File: FO 371/168406-8

The main file I studied (numbered above) consists of three smaller related
files linked together under the common title International reaction
to the death of President Kennedy, 1963. Within each of them there are
individual files dealing with reaction in specific countries. Much of
the material within consists of communications and reports sent to Her
Majestyís Foreign Office in London from British Embassies and
Consulates around the world. Most of these had been sent within a week
of the assassination - some within just two or three days. Presumably
the Foreign Office had requested this information urgently following
the assassination of President Kennedy and the murder of Lee Harvey
Oswald.

When you study documents like these in some depth, you inevitably get
an overall feeling about the situation. As is to be expected, the main
feeling is one of shock. Whether you are reading about the reaction
of the public in Russia, the Government in France, or British ex-patriots
in Australia, that feeling is the same. These papers do not only deal
with those countries, however. Also included - and given equal prominence
- are countries from the emerging third world in Africa, Asia and South
America.

Every individual country was obviously concerned about its own future
and situation following Kennedyís death and the unexpected emergence
of Lyndon Johnson as President. Some countries feared a sudden change
in American policy towards them. Would existing trade agreements continue
as before? Would US aid be cut off? Would there be a change in attitude
towards the Eastern Bloc? What would happen in Vietnam?

I learnt that only two countries in the entire world did not treat
Kennedyís death with the reverence and respect it deserved. One
was Red China and the other, somewhat surprisingly to me, was Portugal.
In Communist China, there was nothing in the way of a public tribute
and one major newspaper carried a front-page cartoon showing JFK face
down in a pool of blood with the caption Kennedy bites the dust. I subsequently
learnt that Portugalís cold attitude was due to something of
a breakdown in relations with the US as the result of serious ongoing
trade disputes.

Some direct quotes

Allow me to quote directly from some of these files. I think you will,
like me, find several of these remarks somewhat prophetic.

1. This is from a file dealing with reactions to the assassination
in Czechoslovakia. President Antonin Novotny sent a message of sympathy
to the new President in which he said that Kennedy was the victim
of a criminal plot. This comment was made as early as 23rd November.

2. Still in Czechoslovakia, the newspaper Rude Provo (24th November),
quoting the Czech Press Agency in the United States, refers to contradictory
rumours as to the forces behind the assassination. Some rumours indicated
that the FBI and the CIA are in back of it.

3. Going forward to 25th November, this is from the British Embassy
in Peking (now Beijing), China to the Foreign Office in London. It is
an unattributed direct quote from the Chinese press: The obvious,
in fact the only line to take, I should think, is that the United States
ruling classes (reactionary, imperialist, etc.), decided that Kennedy
was betraying their interests in some way and had to be liquidated.

4. Here is the first of two very positive statements concerning the
death of Lee Harvey Oswald. It comes from the Yugoslav newspaper Borba
of 25th November: Oswaldís murder took place with police
connivance. Well, I personally think that the word ëconnivanceí
is a little strong at so early a stage - although subsequent research
does suggest that there could be some truth in it.

5. Still with the press, there is a wonderful headline in the German
newspaper Neues Deutschland, again on 25th November. It appears above
one of those infamous photographs of Jack Ruby shooting Oswald and says
simply (in German of course): Dead men tell no tales.
Those five short words are as true today as they were when they were
penned by an anonymous German headline writer.

6. Remaining with the Oswald murder, here are the comments of an official
at the British Embassy in Tokyo, Japan in a report to the Foreign Office
on 26th November: The shooting of Oswald, the alleged assassin,
aroused unfavourable comment in the Japanese press. The impression has
been given in some headlines that the United States is a country where
lynch law prevails and the whole episode has, in the opinion of the
Japanese press, tarnished the American image abroad.

7. The British Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina, sent a lengthy communique
to the Foreign Office on 29th November. It included the following rather
odd statement: The quantity of material published, broadcast
and televised was staggering; the American Embassy must be far better
equipped with obituary material than we are.

8. Now for a brief visit to Africa. This is from an official communication
sent from the British Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan to the Foreign Office.
It is dated 6th December - obviously well after the event and at a time
when it was possible to judge the situation more objectively. I find
this statement strangely prophetic in view of subsequent views and opinions.
Later speculation on the assassinís motives has laid
stress on the influence of Zionism and the extreme right in the United
States. Well, I donít know about the Zionist angle but
as far as the right wing goes .....

9. The final extract I quote here comes from an internal British Government
document prepared by the Foreign Office itself on 23rd December - a
month and a day after the assassination. It is unclear whether this
was intended to be presented to the Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary,
or whoever. It is taken from a lengthy report in which the world is
divided into convenient geographical and political boxes for individual
comment. Under the heading Eastern Europe, we read the following: Most
eastern bloc countries stuck to the story that President Kennedy had
been killed by a right wing racist and denounced the killing of Oswald
by Ruby as a fascist plot to cover up the truth.

What does it all mean?

The above represents just a small cross-section of the material contained
in this file. I have obviously been somewhat selective in my quotes
but it seems that many of the initial opinions have changed very little
over the years. I am intrigued by the regularity with which words like
racist and fascist are used to describe
the plot.

Not surprisingly, two particular countries were anxious to allay any
suspicions that they had been connected with the assassination in any
way. Both the Soviet Union and Cuba strongly denied any involvement.
Cuba especially seemed gripped with fear that the blame would be laid
at its door. Russia was not quite as paranoid but nevertheless stressed
from an early date that it was innocent.

I find it interesting - and perhaps significant - that very few countries
seemed to accept that the assassination was the act of one deranged
lone-nut. That feeling was strengthened when the same deranged
lone-nut was dispatched quickly and efficiently by a second deranged
lone-nut called Jack Ruby.

The other files

Amongst other assassination-related files I examined during that first
PRO visit were some dealing with attendance at the late Presidentís
funeral.

Much diplomacy was exercised regarding who would attend the funeral.
One of the problems was the lack of time available to plan exactly who
would represent each country. In the UK, it was decided almost at once
that Prince Philip would represent The Queen. Prime Minister Douglas-Hume
and Opposition Leader Harold Wilson were obvious attendees but the name
of Liberal Party leader Jo Grimond was only added to the official party
as an afterthought. He perhaps took this as something of a snub and
travelled to Washington alone, and on a normal commercial flight.

There was some concern when the official list of those in the British
party included three young ladies who were not named.
It later transpired, however, that they were members of the Prime Ministerís
staff.

Several countries appeared confused as to whether they should send
their head of state, their prime minister, their ambassador or whoever.
In most cases, they contacted the US State Department for guidance.

A Policy File - FO 953/2109

A Policy File, usually referred to as a P-File, is one prepared by
or dealing with the British Governmentís Information Policy Department.
In view of its subject matter, this one carries the Foreign Office prefix
FO.

This file was released in 1994 - or rather, most of it was. There is
a notice inside the file cover advising that certain parts of it remain
closed. No reason is given. It appears that the British Broadcasting
Corporation (BBC) was in unofficial contact with the Foreign Office
around 27th November. The BBC was finding it difficult to deal with
certain Russian propaganda concerning the assassination. The story had
been circulated by the Soviets that the assassination had a right-wing
origin and that the murder of Oswald was part of a cover-up, also by
the right-wing. The BBC requested that if the Foreign Office gained
any information disproving such allegations, or even something to suggest
that there could be some truth in some in them, they hoped that they
(the BBC) would be given the earliest possible guidance.

It remains to be seen what is contained in the closed section of this
file. Normally the reason a file (or part of a file) remains closed
after the usual 30 years period is because it is deemed to contain material
sensitive to the security of the nation. Did the BBC perhaps know something
about the assassination which the Government was anxious to cover up?

The Kennedy files held at the Public Record Office

The seven files I consulted during my first visit to the PRO were as
follows:

FO 371/168406-8 - International reaction to the death of President
Kennedy, 1963
FO 371/168487-9 - Death of President Kennedy
FO 372/7792-3 - Death of President Kennedy; Memorial Service; Funeral
arrangements for Sir Winston Churchill, 1963
FO 372/7794 - Death of President Kennedy; Official Mourning
FO 953/2109 - British Governmentís approach to Europe; Guidance
for the BBC
over Soviet Propaganda on President Kennedyís Assassination
(Part of file remains closed for indeterminate period)
PREM 11/4408 - Death of President Kennedy, Nov 1963; arrangements for
attendance of Prime Minister at funeral
PREM 11/4582 - Assassination of President Kennedy, 22 Nov 1963

A second visit to the PRO

On 30th November 2001, knowing that the eighth and final Kennedy Assassination
file had been opened and released for public scrutiny, I returned to
the Public Record Office. In the five years since my previous visit,
the PRO had undergone an immense modernization programme. Although the
records and information are still physically contained in cardboard
boxes and file covers, the methods of search and retrieval now demand
considerable computer knowledge and there is now a virtually compulsory
half-hour computer induction course for first-time visitors.

File: FO 371/171941

I found that this Foreign Office file which had still been closed on
my previous visit was now open in its entirety. No reason was available
to explain why, like its fellow Kennedy files, it had not been opened
and available for public scrutiny as usual after 30 years. I noted that
parts of it had been marked CONFIDENTIAL but that is a very low security
classification and would surely not have been the cause of it remaining
closed for a year longer than normal. (Endnote 1)

This file was by far the largest of any I studied. It consisted of
three separate sub-files, each individually numbered and titled. I will
deal with each of them in turn here.

Sub-file: NS 103145/29

Marked CONFIDENTIAL, there are two separate parts to this file. The
first bears the title Soviet Foreign Policy in the light of President
Kennedyís Death and is a lengthy internal Foreign Office Report
dated 27th November 1963. It is a very general and non-committal overview
which comes to the conclusion that President Johnsonís
assumption of office does not suggest that any sudden change in Soviet
policy is planned and that the Soviet leaders will probably
adopt a wait-and-see policy. It was stressed that the Soviets
remained embarrassed at Oswaldís alleged Communist and Cuban
connections and that they continued to deny that he was ever a member
of the American Communist Party or was connected with any pro-Cuban
movement.

Mentioning Kennedyís strong handling of the Berlin situation
within six months of taking office, however, it is stated that we
cannot exclude the possibility that Khrushchev will again be tempted
to see whether the new President has the strength and determination
to withstand a crisis.

Of historical as well as political interest, it is mentioned that Soviet
television made use of Telstar (the worldís first low-altitude
active communications satellite) to transmit pictures directly from
Washington. (I am tempted to ask if the shooting of Oswald was also
shown live in Moscow, and if so, what reaction it caused.)

The second part of this sub-file is a report prepared by the Foreign
Office Research Department. It is entitled Likely Effects of President
Kennedyís Assassination on Soviet Foreign Policy and as it pre-dates
the previous document by one day and deals with virtually the same matters,
it appears to be the basis upon which the main report is based.

It does contain more comment on the Sovietsí embarrassment at
Oswaldís alleged links:
The first announcements attributed the deed to ëultra right-wing
organisationsí. Thereafter, reports assumed a more defensive
tone, denying that Oswald had ever been a member of the American Communist
Party or connected with a pro-Cuban movement, and asserting instead
that ëmadmení had prepared the crime. Pravda also insinuated
that Oswald had Trotskyist connections and had unexplained meetings
with the F.B.I.

Sub-file: NS 103145/30

Under the general title Soviet Coverage of the Assassination of President
Kennedy, this lengthy file comprises five sections. The first four cover
specific dates (22nd-24th, 25th, 26th and 27th-28th) whilst the fifth
is an overall report specifically entitled Soviet Treatment of the Assassination
of President Kennedy. This report is undated but as it is based upon
the four dated files, it was probably compiled on 29th November 1963.

The file is concerned with daily media coverage of the assassination
in the Soviet Union. It explains that the first news of an attempt on
Kennedyís life was given in the Moscow Home Service (radio) at
19.28 GMT (1.28pm CST) (Endnote 2) It then quotes the principal Soviet
newspapers. Pravda stressed that Kennedy had insisted that Congress
should ratify the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty despite sharp attacks from
the American ëwild mení. On Sunday 24th November, Nedelya,
the Izvestiya weekly supplement, published a large photograph of President
Kennedy on its front page under the headline Tragic News from
Texas: Villainous Assassination of President John Kennedy. (Endnote
3)

Moscow Radio continued major coverage of the assassination as the news
came in and a Tass dispatch from Washington blamed the Birchites and
the Ku Klux Klan.

It appears that during the period between the 22nd and the 24th, the
Soviet media was at great pains to indicate that the assassination was
a carefully planned political plan and that the
police authorities .. were striving to implicate the ëleft-wing
forcesí apparently in an effort to channel the anger and indignation
of the American people away from the real culprits.

The daily report of Soviet media coverage on 25th November opens in
sensational style. I feel compelled to quote the first sentence of the
opening paragraph verbatim:

The Soviet coverage of events related to the assassination
of President Kennedy came to a climax on November 25 when television
viewers saw a thirty-minute direct transmission from Washington on the
funeral, a documentary film on the events leading up to the Presidentís
death, including the speech he made at Houston, and then the actual
shooting, and also a film of the shooting of the suspect Oswald.

When I initially read this, I was both baffled and excited by the words
the actual shooting. Since the shooting of Oswald was
mentioned separately, this was obviously a reference to the assassination
itself. I circulated a plea for more information via two internet forums
and was delighted when Sixth Floor Museum Curator Gary Mack promptly
responded with the news that the Muchmore Film had been shown on a New
York TV station, and probably others, on the 25th. He added that since
the film was owned by UPI, it was likely to have been distributed to
other news outlets and so it was quite possible that the film shown
on Soviet TV was Marie Muchmoreís footage. (Endnote 4)

Not surprisingly, the Soviet media, particularly the press, used Jack
Rubyís successful attack upon Oswald to further distance their
country from the assassination. A direct connection between the two
men was mentioned on the 25th and it was claimed that they had been
seen together at Rubyís club the day before the assassination.
Once again, there were strenuous denials that Oswald had ever been a
member of the Communist Party.

The newspapers Pravda and Izvestiya each likened the assassination
of President Kennedy to the Reichstag fire. On the 26th, Izvestiya spoke
of dark deeds in Dallas and emphasised the suspicious
behaviour of the Dallas police particularly in regard to Oswaldís
transfer.

On 27th and 28th November, Soviet communications media were devoting
more space to the suspicious circumstances of Oswaldís death
than to the assassination itself. At the same time, however, President
Johnson was being given a generally favourable press.

Pravda (28th) carried several reports from foreign sources to support
claims that right-wing extremists were responsible for the murders of
both Kennedy and Oswald. These included pieces under headlines such
as Who armed the Murderer? (Rio de Janeiro, Revealing
details (Rome), Too many missing pieces (Paris)
and Were there too many snipers? (Vienna). There was
also a report from Paris that one of Rubyís former dancers had
stated that he had been hired to kill Oswald and had been paid for it.
I would be intrigued to ascertain just which dancer that was alleged
to be!

As mentioned above, the fifth section of this file is in the form of
a report in which the foregoing daily notes and extracts are briefly
outlined and evaluated. Again it was stated that the Soviet media had
continued to stress the Soviet Unionís total innocence throughout
this period. Pravda had printed the CPUSA statement that Oswald was
completely unknown to them and went on to mention that
Trotskyist literature had been found in his room.

Sub-file: NS 103145/32

This sub-file contains just one document, this being the CONFIDENTIAL
report sent direct to the British Foreign Office by the British Ambassador
in Moscow. It is dated 6th December 1963. The title of the report is
Soviet Reactions to the Assassination of President Kennedy and it opens
with the following Summary:

The news of President Kennedyís assassination provoked
immediate expressions of genuine regret and sympathy on the part of
the Soviet authorities and the Soviet people (paragraphs 1-3).
The Soviet Press, radio and television gave the event widespread coverage
and soon adopted the line that the assassination was the work of right
wing extremists (paragraphs 4-7).
The Soviet Government has good reason to regret President Kennedyís
death. We are unlikely to see any change in Soviet policy in the near
future as a result of President Kennedyís disappearance from
the scene (paragraph 8).

This official report, carefully prepared two weeks after the assassination
of President Kennedy, is couched in straightforward, non-sensational
terms. As can be seen from the Summary, it indicates that the Soviet
media in general had continued to maintain that the assassination
was the work of right wing extremists. Whether this was a genuinely
held view or just intended to deflect possible blame from the Soviet
Union is unclear. It was also repeated that Soviet policy was unlikely
to change following President Kennedyís disappearance
from the scene. (What a classic euphemism those four words present!).

Once again, it was pointed out that the Soviet press had continued
to intimate that the Dallas Police of whom they had nothing
good to say .. were not merely inefficient but were implicated either
in the assassination itself or in attempts to hush it up.

Conclusion

The overall impression I gained from my two visits to the PRO, particularly
my first, was that in the days and weeks following the assassination,
the world was in complete confusion. I can recall my own thoughts at
the time. It quickly became a period of intense insecurity, uncertainty
and fear. Looking back on it now, I personally feel that we could well
have been closer to nuclear war in the two or three weeks after 22nd
November 1963 that we had been even at the height of the Cuban Missile
Crisis the year before.

Fortunately, the Soviet Union felt it more important to sit back and
concentrate on vociferously maintaining its own innocence than to take
any more positive action. One can only speculate on the outcome had
the Soviets decided that this time of confusion could provide the opportunity
to launch a successful physical attack upon the United States and her
allies. From the files quoted above, it seems they were far too busy
implicating the Dallas Police Department in the Kennedy and Oswald murders
than in pressing the red nuclear button.

Endnotes

Endnote 1: The five basic document security levels in use at this time
were TOP SECRET, SECRET, CONFIDENTIAL, RESTRICTED and OPEN. Even something
as unexciting as a Government Department internal telephone directory
was allocated a CONFIDENTIAL caveat.

Endnote 2: A BBC Monitoring Service newsflash (copy in authorís
possession), timed at 1938 GMT (1.38pm CST), stated: MOSCOW
RADIO, HOME SERVICE, BROADCAST THE FOLLOWING, BREAKING INTO ITS NEWS
BULLETIN AT 19.28 GMT: +IT HAS JUST BEEN REPORTED FROM NEW YORK: ACCORDING
TO AMERICAN PRESS AGENCIES. DURING THE STAY OF U.S. PRESIDENT IN DALLAS,
AN ATTEMPT WAS MADE ON HIS LIFE. KENNEDY HAS BEEN SEVERLY WOUNDED BY
A FIREARM.+ (See Griggs, Ian (1994), KENNEDY ASSASSINATED! OSWALD
MURDERED! (Dallas, TX: JFK Resource Group, 1997), p. 31

Endnote 4: In addition to Gary Mack, others who responded to my plea
for assistance here included researchers Bill Cheslock, Allan Eaglesham
and Cameron Koo, to each of whom I also express my gratitude.